Following today's news that the iPhone 5 has set a record with over two million pre-orders during the first 24 hours of availability last Friday, Apple's stock price is rising once more. Apple's share price broke through the $700 mark for the first time today in after-hours trading, continuing the company's meteoric rise as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

The stock price has been on a tear -- albeit with a bit of a lull in the middle of the year -- since Apple reported blowout earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2012, rising more than $270/share, or over 65%, in nine months.

At the end of February, Apple broke through the important psychological barrier of $500 billion in market capitalization, then through $600 billion in April. Apple is now worth more than $650 billion, which is $225 billion -- or approximately one Google -- more than second-place ExxonMobil.

Their stock is as hyped as their products.. it's a bubble that's going to burst so loud and it will have severe economic consequences.. and all because of the investors and those who are making quite a bit of money now want to make even more so they are propping up Apple's stock value.

Nobody cares about these numbers anymore really.. to most objective people (even investors) this is insanity. A company that has 80% of their revenue on 2 products is valued more than other companies with diversified revenues.

sigh, you guys can say whatever you want but this stock is not overvalued or a bubble. it'll go quite a bit higher before it levels off or begins to come down. it's actually one of the best stocks to own. yes, even now.

it's a bubble that's going to burst so loud and it will have severe economic consequences..

Do you two dolts know the God damned definition of a bubble? A bubble means there is nothing there. The internet was a bubble. Stocks are a bubble. Mortgages are a bubble. Apple is not a bubble. Apple actually manufactures things. It is 100% tangible. Just like Germany and China who are doing well right now despite most of the world economy being bad, because they manufacture things. Just like the USA was booming in the 50s, because it manufactured things. Apple can't "burst." You can't burst a solid.

You can't burst a solid? What solid? Apple is coasting on 2 products only.. those 2 products get in trouble and their stock bursts. That's why they are suing everyone and trying to prevent competition.. because that's all they really have. That's why it's an overvalued stock and bubble.

They have been artificially bubbled up to the point of insanity so those investors in Apple can make more and more money. It has zero connectivity to any economic sense. They are basically basing the stock on Apple's brand recognition.. that's about it. This is how other bubbles (housing market and other ones were artificially inflated) and then when they burst those who bought in late got screwed.

It’s also worth thinking of the fragility of our financial markets generally. The federal government currently borrows ten-year money at 1.42 percent. Our government debt is rapidly approaching the levels last seen at the end of World War II. We have no plan for regaining control over the budget. The Fed has exhausted every tool of monetary policy and has, indeed, risked creating a huge inflationary problem down the road.

The truth is that 1.42 percent is an insanely low yield for a borrower in the shape that the government is in today. Sooner or later, the government bond market will correct (it would do so much faster if the Fed stood back) and there will be an inevitable rebound on to equities.

So much for the general argument. The specifics on Apple are no more cheering. Analysts expected third quarter revenues to come in at $37 billion; they came in at $35 billion. The miss on earnings was even worse: analysts had penciled in $10.36 a share, and the outcome was more than a dollar per share worse than that at $9.32.

Sales of iPods fell. Sales of Macs were flat. Sales of iPhones were up on the year, but sharply down on the prior quarter. Sales of tablets were excellent, but the competitive background is changing fast. The new iPhone is great, but it’s not a game-changer the way the first one was. It’s kind of like the Rocky films. Rocky 15 just won’t lift the heart the way the very first one did.

Now at this point, I should probably reiterate what I said at the start. I love this company’s products. I think the company that Jobs built is the most impressive American company to have emerged since the days of Ford and General Electric. But those judgments are different from judgments about valuation. The results just announced are not the results of a gravity-defying company, but of one governed by the same laws of competition that everyone else faces too.

People haven’t got bored of smart phones or of anything else that Apple makes. But sometimes, as an investor, you have to stand back and ask, really? And the question here is really twofold. One, can Apple’s top line growth continue when its markets are becoming relentlessly competitive? Two, can Apple’s near 40 percent operating margin persist when every big electronics and Internet company on the planet is out to steal the firm’s lunch?

Do you two dolts know the God damned definition of a bubble? A bubble means there is nothing there. The internet was a bubble. Stocks are a bubble. Mortgages are a bubble. Apple is not a bubble. Apple actually manufactures things. It is 100% tangible.

Whilst you're happy calling people dolts, your explanation makes absolutely no sense - you do not seem to understand what a stock market bubble is. Stock market bubbles have nothing to do with manufacturing, a bubble means that stock is priced above its real-world value. By this definition, it's valid to claim that Apple stock is bubbling.

Nobody cares about these numbers anymore really.. to most objective people (even investors) this is insanity. A company that has 80% of their revenue on 2 products is valued more than other companies with diversified revenues.

It would be the same if Ford made only Mustang and F150 and nothing else and that consisted of 80% of their revenue and they were coasting on brand recognition alone.

But that's not really the case. They are very well diversified.

Hell, even the luxury brands don't sell only 2 car models. Lamborghini, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi all have tons of different models and "form factors" for their vehicles with different specs and basically completely different models.

What's even more ridiculous is that Apple doesn't even have it's own manufacturing unlike Ford and everyone else. They outsource everything. They are basically Dell. So when you put those things in the equation, it makes it even more ridiculous.

It puts thing very much in perspective.. Apple, the most "valuable" company in the world, got that value on 2 products alone they don't even manufacture. No reasonable and logical investor would call them anything else but a bubble. Which they absolutely are.

The bubble would have burst in this economy long ago. Apple's cruising on 2 things, solid performance, and quite ironically, hype. One's driving the other (not saying which one), and seeing their sales figures of their iPhone 5 launch I'm confident they're not going to tank any time soon.

Well, its pretty amazing where they have come over the last couple of years. Everybody knows them and the two main products they sell. They've done a pretty amazing job. I wouldn't be surprised to see their stock hit 900 dollars before it crashes back to a reasonable amount.

I remember wanting an Apple computer before the iphone was released - now I'll steer well clear. A company with that much money equals a lot of power... too much... I don't like.